Sunday, April 15, 2012

Game of Thrones, season two -- a ponderation

game of thrones

So season two of Game of Thrones is now three episodes old. What do I think? Glad you asked.

Just to let you know, I have read the first three books of Martin's Song of Fire and Ice epic, so this is where I'm coming from here:

First off, I do not recall Stannis Baratheon having sex with the sorceress Melisandre. I don't recall even a hint of such a thing. I've seen on a couple fanboy sites some heated debate about this, with some posters swearing that relations between the two were plainly implied or even outright mentioned. I'm calling b.s. on that.

While Stannis is single-minded about his quest for the Iron Throne, to the point of abandoning the gods of his youth and accepting Melisandre's new god of fire, he is honorable almost to a fault in the books. Davos Seaworth, a smuggler, saved Stannis in the last war by smuggling in food to the besieged ruler. For saving Stannis, the lord has him knighted (hence the quasi mocking title of Onion Knight given Davos), but cuts off the tips of Davos' fingers for smuggling. Not exactly the actions of a king who'd bang a red-haired witch.

In tonight's episode we see Renly Baratheon having sex, or rather trying to get started, with the brother of his queen and then being impotent with the queen herself. Again, I don't recall that from the book. Nor do I remember any hint of Renly being gay. He is portrayed as a sort of dandy who plays at being "The Beautiful King," but homosexual? Can't believe I missed that major plot point.

I'm chalking this up to HBO's attempt to really sex up the series. Not sure why they're doing that. The books have plenty of sex and killing and such in them already, so why kick it up a notch? Ratings? I thought this was already a hit series.

Oh well . . .

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am pleased with the casting for the most part. Tonight's episode also introduced us to Brienne of Tarth, played by Gwendoline Christie.

woof! What an amazon!

In the books, Brienne is homely to the point of being mannish in appearance. Don't know if Gwendoline fits that bill perfectly, but they've toned down her looks to make her suitable for the role, imho.

All in all, I'm still pleased with the series and cannot wait to get on to the fourth book -- A Feast for Crows. And if you haven't seen the series yet, check it out. It's way better than HBO's political garbage :-)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Renly being gay is pretty well attested. Margaery later claims the marriage wasn't consummated (that's how she can marry Joffrey) but pretty much no one believes that. Cersei says, "A man who prefers wine might still enjoy some hippocras once in a while". Jaime, threatening Loras, threatens to shove his sword "up some place even Renly never found". Loras never QUITE says what happened, but his lines to both Jaime and Tyrion make it pretty clear.

Re-read the place where Davos rows Melissandre under Storm's End. She offers to make a shadow with him, promising him ecstasy beyond anything he's experienced. Here it's strongly implied but never proved. HBO is taking liberties by actually showing hot Stannis-on-Mel action, and I'd have been happy if they'd left it to speculation the way they do in the books.

This is one series HBO had to actually sex DOWN slightly. At least the creepy stuff like Dany and Khal Drogo (in the book she's 13). The places where they added gratuitous nudity doesn't really improve things.

postaldog said...

My my, what marvelously detailed recall you have of these very dense novels. I'm impressed, and I mean that truly. No sarcasm intended.
I don't recall either of those conversations specifically. Though I do remember Davos and Melisandre when she birthed the wraith, and Davos recognizing the shape of the shadow. Still not sure that it was Stannis.
As to the creepiness, yeah, the Stark children, Dany etc. are all very young in the book anywhere from what eight to early teens, no way they could use actors that young for the tv show.
Thanks for commenting :-)